New home search site matches NYC districts with lifestyle

Launched in 2013, real-estate search site Place I Live has launched an intuitive new feature called Place I Live Match, which is designed to reveal the ideal part of NYC to live in according to your lifestyle, work and property preferences. It also presents you with accommodation listings for you to browse immediately.

Particularly helpful for expats moving in or locals who don’t have a good knowledge of other areas, the platform will present you with a series of nine simple questions to determine (with the help of some clever algorithms) where the best place to relocate in New York would be.

Whereas traditional home search sites group results according to the number of bedrooms, price range and pre-determined postcode, Place I Live Match tailors more intelligent results that reflect your wider needs and concerns. It will even give you up-to-date crime stats, show you how long your commute to work would be and where the nearest yoga studio is.

With an appealing, user-friendly interface, buyers and renters can quickly get a sense of the most appropriate areas for them to move to. Everyone knows hipsters love Brooklyn, for example, but many parts of it are becoming too expensive – so what are the alternatives?

These are the questions the site asks, and the answers are multiple choice. Globetrender thought the options weren’t very specific (doesn’t everyone like Italian food and being near shops?) and some variables were missing (such as schools, gay bars and liquor stores) but gave it a go nonethelesss.

What do you like doing on the weekends? (Globetrender says bars and pubs, going to the movies)

What other eating out options do you like? (Coffeeshops, pizza places, diners, salad places, food trucks)

Where do you prefer to buy groceries? (Supermarkets, organic stores, farmers markets)

What other amenities do you require? (Shopping, doctors, dry cleaning)

What is your status? (Couple)

What is your ideal commute plan? (15 minutes from work address in Brooklyn)

Extra info: rent or buy? (Rent)

Budget? (Up to US$3,500 a month)

Bedrooms/bathrooms? (One)

Size? (Any)

Based on this information, Place I Live Match says Globetrender should move to Chelsea in Manhattan, which is a 75 per cent match. The commute is 28 minutes, the median rental price is US$3,060, it has all the amenities it needs. The only problem is the high crime rate (a graph shows it mainly to be grand larceny) and the noise level is very high.What Globetrender liked most about the search results was the precise commute details including a list of subway stations in the area, pictures of the neighbourhood, and photos of all the restaurants nearby with locations pinpointed on a map. Other recommendations were Murray Hill, Greenwich Village and Flatiron. These areas had lower crime rates, which seemed appealing.Lured by the fact it has a Whole Foods Market, Globetrender opted for Greenwich Village, which also had slightly cheaper rental prices and an average amount of crime. There were 173 listings available, with images, apartment details and agent info clearly provided. Definitely a better search experience than normal. What was the inspiration for launching the site? CEO Sarunas Legeckas says: “The portal was born when one of the founders wanted to buy an apartment and was looking for more detailed information about the neighbourhood he wanted to buy. In order to find information he had to Google it, and go to different sources.

“The information was usually coming in a messy Excel spreadsheet format, which was difficult to read and make sense of it. That way, the idea was born to fill the apartment search gap in the market and to build a platform for that.

“NYC was chosen as a primary target as a major global city. Thousands of people are moving to NYC all the time, and they need to have better information about neighbourhoods that match their specific needs. Now they will be perfectly ready for the move.”

Are there plans to roll it out to other cities? Legeckas says: “Place I Live – which is the original tool that provides detailed data about neighbourhoods – already operates in San Francisco, Chicago, London and Berlin. The new tool, Place I Live Match, will be tested in New York first. We certainly have plans to bring it to other cities, too.”